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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Revelation 20:4 - 20:6
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Result of Gospel-preaching in the New Testament era:
v. 4. And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
v. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
v. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Here the fate of a part of the Church of God during the thousand years is described: And I saw thrones and those that sat upon them, and judgment was given to them; and the souls of those that had been put to death because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, and as many as did not worship the beast nor his image, and did not receive his mark on their forehead nor upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The people whose happiness is here described were the martyrs that were put to death even while the Gospel was victoriously marching forward on earth. They suffered martyrdom on account of their confession of Jesus and of the Gospel. Among these was not a single one of those that worshiped the beast, the kingdom of Anti-Christ, or his image, the hierarchical structure of the Roman Church. The fact that one actually accepts the doctrines of popery in all their idolatrous scope, thus bearing the mark of the beast on the forehead or in the hand, excludes one from the bliss of heaven. Only those that sealed their faith with their blood and life are included in the perfected salvation in heaven. For this living and reigning is not, as the Chiliasts would have it, a visible reign here on earth before the last day. It is a life of the departed children of God in heaven, according to the soul. Though the Christians die here on earth, yet they are alive, according to the soul, with Christ in heaven, experiencing the joy and appreciating the blessedness of their life in heaven. That they are now delivered from all suffering and are sharing in the eternal joys of heaven, that is their reigning with Christ; in this sense they are the assessors of Christ, sitting on thrones in His presence. This took place during the time determined by God for the binding of Satan, to take away his absolute power over the nations.
The prophet adds: But the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years had come to an end; this is the first resurrection. Those that died in Christ, in the confession of their Lord, were blessed from the moment when they closed their eyes to this world; their souls were taken into the presence of God and Christ, to become partakers at once of the bliss of eternity. The rest of the dead, however, those to whom physical death comes while they are in the state of spiritual death, will not share in this happiness, but are doomed to everlasting death. The slaves of idolatry, the servants of Anti-Christ, have no part in the first resurrection, by which the faithful are immediately taken into the realms of bliss, according to their souls. Of this the prophet writes: Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection; upon these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him thousand years. That, surely, is joy and bliss in richest measure, to have the soul released from its earthly habitation and to be taken up into the home of everlasting happiness. Upon those that have died thus, experiencing only the physical death, the second death, eternal damnation, has no power. Clothed in the white garments of an eternal priesthood, they will serve God and Christ, world without end, for the thousand years are but the preliminary stage of the time when soul and body will be reunited in the second resurrection.
Chiliasm
Chiliasm, or Millennialism, is that peculiar doctrine which expects an era of temporal bliss on earth, with an earthly kingdom for all believers, Christ being the King, while Satan and all forces of evil are removed from the earth for the time being. All this is supposed to take place before the Day of Judgment and to last for one thousand years according to human reckoning, Hence the name Millennialism, or Chiliasm, from the thousand years spoken of in this chapter.
The doctrines of Chiliasm have been held by certain enthusiasts almost since the founding of the Church, and there are almost as many different forms of Chiliasm as there are exponents of the theories. For our purposes, however, it will suffice to divide the Chiliasts into two divisions. To the first group belong those Chiliasts that hold the extreme views. They do not believe that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, but hold that the coming of Anti-Christ is yet to be expected. At the end of the time which is allotted to Anti-Christ, these enthusiasts believe that Christ will come visibly and in glory with all the heavenly hosts, judge Anti-Christ and his false prophet, and condemn them to the torments of hell. At the same time, so they say, Satan will be taken and bound for a thousand years, to be kept absolutely under lock and key until his release. Thrones will also be placed on earth for the resurrected apostles, who will then pronounce judgment and decide which of the believers may arise in the first physical resurrection; and those that are found worthy will be raised from the dead and receive spiritual bodies, while the other dead will be obliged to remain in their graves. The believers will then, as priests of God, reign in the world and cause all the people of the earth to acknowledge Christ as Lord. Sin will have lost its power. And the center of this wonderful kingdom will be the land of Canaan with the rebuilt city of Jerusalem, where Christ will reign as visible King. But after a thousand years, so the Chiliasts dream, Satan will be loosed from his prison to summon all the heathen that are still unconverted to fight against Jerusalem. And then, when the danger is at its greatest height, Christ, who meanwhile had returned to heaven, will come hack for the final Judgment. That is the dream of the Chiliasts.
Other Millennialists hold modified views along the same lines, not insisting quite so strongly on the material side of the kingdom nor on the physical presence of Christ. They merely dream of a time when the Christian Church and the Christian religion will dominate the world, when the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments will be the laws of the world, when all men will bow under the Cross of Christ, when courts of arbitration will render wars obsolete, and when everything will be peace and harmony. These dreams have been rather rudely jarred in the last few years, and they are destined to be jarred very much more, since such views are altogether at variance with Scriptures.
Chiliasm in every form is wrong and therefore, incidentally, very dangerous. In the first place, as we have seen above, there is nothing in the text to justify or substantiate the dreams and claims of the Millennialists. In the second place, the Bible in numerous passages, in passages, moreover, which are not in figurative and prophetic language, tells us that there will be but one return of Christ, namely, to judge the quick and the dead, all of whom will have to appear before Him at the same time. Furthermore, the Bible throughout plainly and unmistakably tells us that the Church of Christ here on earth will be a Church Militant until the end, until the great Day of Judgment, and that persecution and distress and enmity will be its lot until the final day of salvation, Act_14:22; Luk_9:23; 2Ti_3:12; Mat_24:1-51. And, finally, the Bible teaches the suddenness and the unexpectedness of Christ's return to Judgment, not preceded by a thousand glorious years of a visible reign here on earth, Mar_13:35-37; Mat_24:44-51.
We shall, therefore, continue to believe and confess what we have stated in the Augsburg Confession: "Also they teach that, at the consummation of the world, Christ shall appear for Judgment, and shall raise up all the dead. He shall give to the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the devils He shall condemn to be tormented without end.
"They condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishments of condemned men and devils. They condemn also others, who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed."